We’re no strangers to the idea of one unruly passenger prompting a commercial flight to change course, but who would have ever thought someone could disrupt a flight by doing something so peaceful as yoga and meditation? Folks, it can happen, and it did.
According to the FBI, a recent United Airlines flight heading from Honolulu International Airport to Narita International Airport in Japan turned around because a passenger refused to stop doing yoga in the back of the plane and return to his seat, the Associated Press reports.
The FBI says in its complaint that the man told them he didn’t feel like sitting in his seat during the meal service, so he retreatd to the back of the plane to do yoga and meditate. When his wife and flight attendants told him he had to return to his seat, he got angry.
The man “pushed his wife because she was trying to make him stop,” the complaint said. “He felt that she was siding with the flight crew.”
He also attempted to head-butt and bite some Marines on the flight who tried to get him back to his seat, Assistant U.S. Attorney Darren Ching said at the man’s detention hearing Wednesday.
The complaint says he threatened to kill passengers and yelled that there was no god. As for what caused him to fly into a rage? He felt like the crew was ordering him around, Ching said at the hearing.
After his arrest, a judge ordered that the man be released on a $25,000 bond but with certain conditions, including that he must stay on the island of Oahu for the time being.
FBI: Man arrested after doing yoga, meditating on airplane [Associated Press]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist